Sanford, North Carolina

Fracking traffic: Another downside of drilling

A recent article by the Associated Press shed light on the increase in traffic accidents and fatalities as a result of fracking activity in West Virginia and other locales that have allowed the practice.

“An Associated Press analysis of traffic deaths and U.S. census data in six drilling states shows that in some places, fatalities have more than quadrupled since 2004 — a period when most American roads have become much safer even as the population has grown,” the story reads.

A friend of the Rant recently obtained a 2011 photograph showing fracking traffic backed up along a two-lane country highway in rural Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

With North Carolina set to issue its first drilling permits in less than a year, and Lee and Chatham counties considered the shale gas center of North Carolina, it’s fair to ask — is this what we’ll be seeing on Steel Bridge Road soon? Carbonton Road? State roads leading into Chatham County’s Governor’s Club, or Pinehurst in Moore County?